Demo:listen: Garroted

Welcome to Demo:listen, your weekly peek into the future of underground metal. Whether it’s death, grind, black, doom, sludge, heavy, progressive, stoner, retro, post-, etc. we’re here to bring you the latest demos from the newest bands. On this week’s Demo:listen, we stumble upon a brood of cosmic provocateurs in Massachusetts’ Garroted.

At first welt, Garroted are almost too much. There’s just a lot happening on their demo, In the Court of Nyarlathotep. From the two-headed guitar attack at the coda of “That Which Scourged Leng” to the mockery lying in wait on “Black Spectre.” Book-ended by clean guitar, at critical mass with abstract horrors manifested through weird death metal. Maybe a part repeats in-between, but no two parts sound the same. Could be that it’s you that transforms and not the riffs? . . . Forgive me, I digress. It’s just that Garroted–with a mad genius, however callow–have crafted a demo that’s truly monstrous. A demo that is both a testament to their imminent power as well as the subgenre’s endless potency.

Upon hearing “The Crawling Chaos . . .” your innate metal sensibilities will immediately kick in. Subconsciously ordering you to keep listening, and to relisten, again and again. And you acquiesce, of course. Because the album’s, I mean: the demo’s appeal sinks in long before you’re fully able to comprehend all the tentacularly-operated, oingy-boingy, moist, grim Lovecraftian tech death that you’re hearing, and what exactly it’s doing to you. As you’re taking in these four songs you’re also being taken in and assimilated, transformed into a more perfect copy of yourself. Thus you learn right away how In the Court’s challenges mirror its rewards.

Just as I learned, during my correspondence with drummer Steven S. Peyton, how Garroted’s sincerity rivals their ambition as well as their ability. To find a band whose members are young and dedicated mind and body to their craft, yet candid and entirely unpretentious in their approach makes for a (much needed) refreshing interview. Ever-straight-forward, Peyton writes: “[S]ince the beginning . . . we had no intention of merely copying another band’s sound and attempting to pass it off as our own. We always wanted to combine our influences into something that was uniquely our own . . . [W]e all have fairly broad influences as musicians that extends far beyond metal, namely classical music . . . and the progressive rock movement of the 1970s (e.g. Camel, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Yes, Gong, Premiata Forneria Marconi, etc).” While this information does little to assuage the feverish nightmare brought on by In the Court, perhaps you’ll find it helpful knowing that guitarist Ray Brouwer, vocalist Dan Jacobs, and Peyton have been jamming metal together since they were 13, 14, and 16, respectively. Peyton explains: “We originally formed in March 2011. Back then, however, we were called Morbid Reality, and weren’t very serious at all. We played mostly covers (stuff like ‘Blinded by Fear’ by At the Gates, ‘Ridden with Disease’ by Autopsy, ‘Crystal Mountain’ by Death, ‘Raining Blood’ by Slayer, etc) with one original song (recorded poorly in September 2011) which frankly wasn’t much to speak of.”

So they grew up together; they came to age in death metal together, learning their trade by copying the works of the masters. Honing their skills while paying homage to the ancient ones. And it helps knowing that Garroted are the real deal, doesn’t it? That they’ve earned their vests, their patches and your devotion. So now all your inhibitions slip away. You transcend into and up, floating and floating, through the leagues of this interdimensional lagoon of their creation.

In the Court of Nyarlothotep is on Garroted’s Bandcamp, waiting for you. And in September Garroted are playing in Worcester with Blood Incantation and Nucleus because, occasionally, the world makes sense. As for the non-existent elephant in the room, aka the physical manifestations, or lack thereof, Peyton says: “[N]ext is merchandise, physical releases, improved technical ability, songwriting, and conceptual design, and early next year we are looking to put out the next release . . .” What’re you waiting for then? Direct yourself over to Garroted’s Bandcamp and begin your inundation now.